Downtown Revitalization

Independence imagines a new downtown

written by Sheila G. Miller

There was a time when driving through Oregon’s small towns meant passing empty downtown storefronts and imagining the cities as they once were. Thanks to redevelopment projects taking place across the state, that view is changing.

In Lake Oswego, Wizer Properties and Evergreen Group have partnered to create a mixed-use development in the heart of downtown that will feature a 430-space underground parking garage; 43,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 200 apartments. The project, slated to be completed late this year, is going up on property that once held the iconic Wizer’s grocery store, a stalwart in town that closed in 2013 after sixty-five years.

Independence imagines a new downtown in late 2017, as the city works on public infrastructure on the site. The development by Tokola Properties, will include a seventy-five room hotel, 110 apartments and fourteen townhomes.
Lake Oswego leverages mixed-use in the heart of downtown.